‘Gangsta Debbs’ – the granny who used her family to run an £80m drug empire

Deborah Mason, known colloquially as ‘Gangsta Debbs’, orchestrated an extensive drug empire valued at an estimated £80 million. This grandmother leveraged her position as the matriarch to involve family members directly in the illicit operations, establishing a sophisticated criminal network. Despite the immense profits generated by her high-earning syndicate, which afforded her a conspicuously lavish lifestyle, Mason was also found to have fraudulently claimed a substantial £50,000 in state benefits, exposing a stark contradiction in her double life. Her leadership solidified her status as the formidable head of a powerful crime family.